MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino families have been cutting back on their consumption to cope with double-digit inflation, according to a recent survey by Pulse Asia, Inc.

The survey showed that two in three households (66 percent) were “consuming less of and/or spending less on” food, while about one in four (24 percent) also said they had cut back on rice consumption or spending.

Aside from food, Filipino households have also been consuming less of other items, such as electricity (53 percent), transportation and transport fuel (32 percent), and liquefied petroleum gas (31 percent).

Among households with cell phones (60 percent), about a fifth (22 percent) said they had also reduced their cell phone load expenses.

These were the latest results released by the polling firm from its July 2008 Ulat ng Bayan survey. Earlier results from the same Pulse Asia survey showed 75 percent of Filipinos saying they were worse off now than they were a year ago.

The survey, conducted from July 1 to 14, 2008, used face-to-face interviews with a multistage probability sample of 1,200 adults. It had a margin of error of plus-minus 3 percentage points.

Inflation during the survey rose to a 17-year-high of 12.2 percent. It has been at double-digits since June when it jumped to 11.4 percent.

For food items alone, inflation has been at double-digits since April (12 percent). It was 14.2 percent in May, 17.4 percent in June and 18.6 percent in July. Rice prices increased 50 percent in July and 43 percent in June, compared with a year ago.

“Even as reduced consumption has been the main strategy of about half of Filipino households in coping with high inflation, other households sought additional sources of income (19 percent), borrowed money (10 percent) or dipped into their savings (10 percent),” Pulse Asia said in a statement released Wednesday.

The high cost of living calls for prioritizing expenses, said Gerry Castillo, a barangay official in Las Piñas, told the Inquirer in an interview that the high cost of living called for prioritizing expenses.

“We only buy what is important,” Castillo said of his family. “We cut back on entertainment expenses, for example.”

Fe Marcelo, a 39-year-old mother in Cubao, Quezon City, said she found the times to hard for her family of three.

Aside from struggling to budget expenses to fit her family’s food needs, she could not “give as much” to her 15-year-old daughter as before.

“For example, this morning, I wanted to buy her some socks. I originally wanted to buy five, but because of budget constraints, I could only buy three,” she said. “I usually avoid buying wholesale. I could still use the money left to buy other important things.”

To determine which items households have consumed less of or spent less on over the past three months, the survey asked the question, “Which of the following have you consumed less or spent less on in the past three months?”

They were presented the following choices and were instructed to choose only a maximum of three: food, rice, other foods aside from rice, electricity, transportation/gasoline/diesel, LPG and cell phone load (for households with cell phones).

Households that cut back on food consumption and/or expenditures increased by 22 percentage points since March, from 44 percent to 66 percent. The cutback on consumption and spending was “more widespread” in areas outside Metro Manila and among the lower classes.

It was 75 percent in the Visayas, 70 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila and 61 percent in Mindanao. It was 71 percent among class E and 66 percent in class D.

“Nevertheless, [Metro Manila] and class ABC households also feel the impact of double-digit inflation rates,” Pulse Asia noted. The percentage of households reducing food consumption in Metro Manila was 47 percent, while it was 48 percent among class ABC.

To determine the impact of high prices on households, the survey also asked the question, “What is the main effect of the price increases of commodities and services on your family?”

Respondents were given the following choices and were instructed to choose only one: We reduced our consumption of other products or services apart from food and education (26 percent); we reduced our food consumption (23 percent); we looked for an additional source of income (19 percent); we borrowed money to meet the family’s expenses (11 percent); our savings was reduced (10 percent); and we pawned or sold things to meet the family’s expenses (3 percent).

The survey also found some 530,000 households (3 percent) having one or more of their members going “without food for at least one whole day” during the month preceding the survey “primarily because the household had no money to buy food.”

Of those who said yes, 9 in every 10 (89 percent) said it was because “there was no money for buying food” -- the reason of 91 percent of respondents in both class D and class E.